Chevelle Interview - 02.16.2005
| Interview with Sam Loeffler (drums) Interview by Jason Schleweis | 02.16.2005 | Phone  The debate relentlessly continues; is Chevelle a Christian band or not? According to drummer Sam Loeffler, everyone would have known the answer years ago if they had only listened. Simply put "there's a lot worse things to be called." So instead, we've cleared up all the other news items swirling around the band of late including Pete Loeffler's solo album, their re-release of This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In), and why in the world there are fairies and coffins in their songs and videos. To start off, we'd like to hear your thoughts about an item that's been debated to great lengths on your message board lately, and that's your status as a Christian band... I don't want to talk about it. And the reason I don't want to talk about it is we've been talking about it for six years. People keep bringing it up but nothing I say...nothing matters anyways, they'll just keep bringing it up anyways. It's like nothing helps; nothing does anything. But if this can shed any light on anything, when we were first signed to an indie label it was owned by a company that distributed music to Christian book stores. I think that's how all that happened. But like I've said in like 50 other interviews, there's a lot worse things to be called. So that probably answers everything. We'll switch to a different topic then. Let's talk about Pete's solo album. What can you tell us about it? He's not really so much working on a solo record as...when Pete writes, he writes a lot of things on acoustic and some things just don't work as a whole band. So what he is basically doing is putting a bunch of songs together that we didn't use, that were written acoustically. Unfortunately, we've been on tour a lot lately so he really hasn't been able to work on it much at all. But he'd still like to do it so I think it'll happen. So that doesn't make it awkward for you and Joe then, being that you've been together your whole lives yet he's doing this album on his own? No not at all. He's always been the principle song writer with the lyrics and melodies. A lot of the stuff that we talk about is all from him anyways. Speaking of new releases, This Type Of Thinking (Could Do Us In) is going to be re-released with a DVD so we were just wondering what will this new edition contain and when can we expect it? I think it comes out in the next two months. What we did is just put some stuff on there about us making the record and making the videos, and some stuff from home just kinda riding around our little town in the suburbs of Chicago. And we also did this thing where we did an alternate version of the song "The Clincher" and it's kinda cool, it's just very different. We did it with Gino Lenardo who like wrote the last two Filter records, and he's a friend of our's. So that stuff will be on the DVD with the extra song, and on that same thing will be the whole record in 5.1 surround. So it's kind of a cool thing and it should be out in two months! Now you guys are shooting a video for "The Clincher" soon correct? Yeah we actually just shot that. We shot it in Los Angeles when we were there, I don't even know, like two weeks ago maybe. So we just got the second edit of it last night. It's not finished but it's close to finished. That will be coming out in the next couple of weeks. Can you share with us a little bit of what the story board is going to be like for that video? Yeah, the storyboard behind it is about this little kid that's running around. Like a five year old or so and he's catching bugs and displaying them. And he accidently catches like a pixie or like a small angel figurine, like a...I'm trying to think what the word is... Like a fairy? Yeah like a fairy! That's perfect! (Laughter) And not knowing it's a fairy, he stabs her through the chest and puts her on display on his wall. (Laughter) And then it's just about him realizing that this is not like any other bug he's ever caught and figuring it out and letting her go at the end. It's not like a complicated thing, it was just an interesting subject. With this video, do you think you had to avoid any religious connotations since the song contains the lyric "Never would I have helped to nail down" which could be interpreted as part of the crucifixion? Yeah, I mean I suppose it could be interpreted as anything! But the idea behind it, for the song "The Clincher," is about being buried alive. And when he says "help to nail down" he's talking about nailing down the lid of the coffin. You can interpret it any way you want to though, whatever works is cool! There's also been a lot of fans on your message board that have been trying to dissect your song "Still Running" and have been wondering what it is that Pete says exactly at the beginning of the song and if there's anything else throughout the song that might be said backwards. So we're just wondering if you could help interpret those lyrics and clear up any other confusion surrounding this song? No no, it's forward. I'm trying to remember what the lyrics are, I actually do know what it is. We've done it so many times because it's actually in the set. It's like, "We should all look toward the day when a man realizes that the sounds coming from his voice aren't supposed to be complaints when change occurs." It's something like that I think. But it's about being negative, on how if you live your life focusing on all the negative all the time, eventually no one is going to want to be around you. Now you guys are on the SnoCore tour right now, but what plans do Chevelle have after the tour finishes? We have a bunch of headline dates we're doing and then we're going to Japan, and then there's this other tour we're going to do but I prolly shouldn't say what it is cause it's not been confirmed yet. But it's a pretty cool tour that spans like 500 - 600 people seaters, with relatively low ticket prices and 10 bands. It wouldn't happen to be the Family Picnic Tour would it? Well maybe. (laughter) If it works out that'll be it. That was going to be my next question; if there had been any new developments with that. Yeah, I don't know if we're doing it or what. I just know it's in the development process. But to me it sounds like a really cool idea and a really cool concept and we'd like to be a part of it if it happens. There were a couple other songs here that fans were wondering about, so if you could just give a loose interpretation of these that would be great. The first one is going all the way back to your Point #1 album with the song "Long." What exactly was this song about? Oh man! I don't know if I remember! (Laughter) There's a chance I never knew...yeah, I don't know. How about the song "Grab Thy Hand?" I kinda do, but...see on that record; on Wonder What's Next? there were a lot of songs that had more than one subject in them; that had like two, three, or four subjects in them. So a lot of those songs aren't about one thing, but I'm pretty sure it's about a girl. (Laughter) It's about an ex-girlfriend. I'm pretty sure that's true! (Laughter) As the last part of questions here, we'd like to talk about you personally as a musician. What do you think makes a good drummer and what influences have you had and why? Well as far as making a good drummer I think it's whatever you like to play to the music and if it fits. I think that's part of being a good drummer. But I think another part of being a good drummer is sort of being bursted [in the sense of being intense because of overwhelming emotion.] Historically, it's what drumming is as far as being introverted and what people have gone through for the development of rock music. As far as being a rock drummer that is. As far as influences go, my personal influences more than anything are people that are close to me. Like my brother-in-law and my drum tech now and people like that have probably influenced me more so than bigger time drummers in the industry. But when I was growing up there was a guy named George Hurley and he was a really big influence with his band The Minute Men. And there's a bunch of great people out, just awesome drummers. I think every year it reaches a new level and that's really cool. |
